Dennis Overbye (born June 2, 1944, in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

) is a science writer specializing in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

and

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount (lexicographer), Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in ...

and is the cosmic affairs correspondent for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''.

Biography

Overbye received his B.S. in physics from

M.I.T. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

—where he was a member of the Alpha Mu chapter of

Phi Kappa Sigma Phi Kappa Sigma () is an international all-male college secret society and social fraternities and sororities, fraternity. While nicknames differ from institution to institution, the most common nicknames for the fraternity are Skulls, Skullhous ...

—in 1966. He started work towards a master's degree in astronomy from U.C.L.A. in 1970. Overbye started his career by working as a scientist for

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

and then other companies. In 1976 he became assistant editor at ''

Sky and Telescope ''Sky & Telescope'' (''S&T'') is a monthly American magazine covering all aspects of amateur astronomy, including the following: *current events in astronomy and space exploration; *events in the amateur astronomy community; *reviews of astronomi ...

'' magazine. From 1976 to 1980 he was a senior editor at ''

Discover Discover may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''Discover'' (album), a Cactus Jack album * ''Discover'' (magazine), an American science magazine Businesses and brands * DISCover, the ''Digital Interactive Systems Corporation'' * Di ...

'' magazine. Subsequently, he embarked on a freelance career, during which time he published articles in ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'', ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

'', the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', and ''

'', among other publications. He has written two books: ''Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos'', about scientists and their quest to understand the universe, and ''Einstein in Love'', dealing with

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

's youth and the controversy surrounding the degree to which Einstein's first wife,

Mileva Marić Mileva Marić ( sr-cyr, Милева Марић; 19 December 1875 – 4 August 1948), sometimes called Mileva Marić-Einstein ( sr-cyr, Милева Марић-Ајнштајн, Mileva Marić-Ajnštajn), was a Serbian physicist and mathematicia ...

, contributed to the theory of relativity. He joined the staff of ''The New York Times'' in 1998 as deputy science editor, then switched to full-time writing. In 2014 he was a finalist for the

Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting The Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting has been presented since 1998, for a distinguished example of explanatory reporting that illuminates a significant and complex subject, demonstrating mastery of the subject, lucid writing and clear pr ...

. Overbye lives in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

with his wife,

Nancy Wartik Nancy may refer to: Places France * Nancy, France, a city in the northeastern French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle and formerly the capital of the duchy of Lorraine ** Arrondissement of Nancy, surrounding and including the city of Nancy ...

, their daughter Mira Overbye and two cats.

Books

* ''Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos: The Scientific Quest for the Secret of the Universe,'' Harper-Collins (1991), & (finalist, Nation Book Critics Circle Award for non-fiction). Second edition (with new afterword), Back Bay, 1999. * ''Einstein in Love: A Scientific Romance,'' Viking (2000),

Awards

American Institute of Physics The American Institute of Physics (AIP) promotes science and the profession of physics, publishes physics journals, and produces publications for scientific and engineering societies. The AIP is made up of various member societies. Its corpora ...

Science Writing Award, 1980 and 1992 *

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

Science Journalism Award, 2005 (for large newspaper writing)

References

External links

Bio on Edge.org''New York Times'' author index pageInterview with Overbye on the Marketing for Scientists blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Overbye, Dennis Science journalists Living people American science writers The New York Times writers Los Angeles Times people American magazine editors 1944 births Discover (magazine) people MIT Department of Physics alumni